Tayla Parx is in her prime. The singer, actress and Grammy-nominated songwriter behind the huge hits of Ariana Grande, Khalid and Panic! at the Disco he is once again an independent artist. Her third album will be released next month Many moons, many sunsa culmination of a few years of life lived to the fullest.
“Each of my projects are stories of what happened since the last album,” she tells Zoom from her home in Nashville. “There was a lot of catching up to do.”
Parx had technically been working on the music for this album since 2020, though she didn't realize at the time that she was doing that year's follow-up Coping Mechanisms. Parx experimented with writing and creating new music as she felt inspired, releasing the singles “Rich”, “Flowers” and “For What It's Worth” in 2022.
Last spring, a week working in Nashville helped cement that these songs would be her third full-length project and first since parting ways with Atlantic. “I think me and Atlantic realized that I'm the type of artist that should be able to do stuff that Tayla made,” he says. “Even when I worked with Atlantic, it was still on my own imprint. But this time I was able to say, “There are no red lines. Let's go back to how we used to make music. Let's get back to allowing life to happen. Let's get back to writing these songs.”
A big reason it took Parx a few years to realize she was working on an album was because she had to find balance. This meant that she experiences more “firsts” in her everyday life so that she has real inspiration for her lyrics. “I always wanted to have the freedom to make music whenever I wanted, but I also wanted the independence to be able to do that while living my life,” he says. Outside of her own music, she's still acting (most recently playing Donna Summer in the movie Spinning gold) and writes and produces songs for other artists. “As an artist and as a songwriter, sometimes we're just studio rats and you don't realize until it's too late that you haven't lived.”
Life came fast at Parx in the past four years: He got engaged and then broke off. He fell into lust and then snapped out of it quickly. She has spent a lot of time trying to figure out what she wants in a relationship as well as what the words “freedom” and “independence” mean in both her personal and professional life. The culmination of these lessons is an album that captures the lows and highs he has experienced during this time.
To invite people into this new world, Parx launches the official album announcement with new single 'Era'. It's a rough, catchy, empowering, high-energy track that celebrates those high points and was fittingly written towards the end of Parx's production of this album.
“I'm in my season of owning what I am. I have learned the limits. I tried to sleep well. I was growing food to eat,” she says of the track, which features Zimbabwean-Australian rapper Tkay Maidza. “If you listen to my lyrics, I tell you everything you need to know about me and what my values are as a person. I'm saying that when you get through those dark times, you'll eventually bounce back and realize that you're okay.”
Parks looks to the future with pure joy. He will be playing more live shows, both in the US and Europe. She wonders what the tour will be like for her, and that's something she's especially excited to report. More than anything, she's grateful for the time she had for herself. It made her more than capable of entering this particular creative era.
“When any artist prioritizes happiness and whatever their way of being an artist is, you get the best music out of them,” he says. “And I think this is some of the best music I've ever created.”
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/tayla-parx-era-new-album-interview-1235039733/